


Amnesia

by everlovingdeer



Series: Harry Potter Short Stories [17]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Quidditch, Quidditch Accident, Temporary Amnesia, not much angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 20:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20494940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everlovingdeer/pseuds/everlovingdeer
Summary: “Well you see,” Lupin began slowly, considering his words as he spoke, “When James got hit by the bludger and fell, he developed a form of amnesia-”“He thinks that you’re his girlfriend.” Black cut in.My mouth dropped open in shock. “Excuse me?”“Be quiet,” Black hissed, making me realise just how loudly I had been talking. “He might hear you.”“I don’t care if he hears me!”





	1. Amnesia

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written in 23/11/2013 and has only been edited mildly since

It was fairly common knowledge that there was nothing better than a quidditch match to kick start the weekend. But it was made even better when it was sunny outside. Everyone was sitting in the stands, talking between one another as the two teams warmed up behind the scenes. Closing my eyes I tilted my head up to the sky in order to feel the warmth on my face, a smile instantly making its way onto my face. 

“Oi.” There was a sharp jab to my side. Opening my eyes I turned to look back at the girl sitting beside me. 

“What’s the matter?” I asked when Greta raised an eyebrow at me.

“You were going to miss the start of the match.” She said as an explanation.

I looked back to the pitch and saw that she had been right. Whilst I had been lost in my own world the two teams had made their way onto the pitch and were preparing to take to the sky. Settling onto their broomsticks they rose to the sky and waited for the release of the golden snitch.

“Gryffindor!” There was a mighty shout from beside me, making me flinch.

“Don’t let anyone else hear you cheering for the opposite team – they’ll call you out on treason,” I remarked lightly, watching as the chasers from both teams tried to outmanoeuvre each other. One trying to keep a hold of the quaffle and the other trying to snatch it away. “Is Gryffindor your flavour of the month then?”

“Yes.” She said instantly.

I rolled my eyes watching as Potter stole the quaffle away from one of the Ravenclaw chasers. Turning his broom swiftly he flew back to the direction of the goal hoops. He scored the first goal effortlessly, the quaffle slipping through the keeper's outstretched hands. He turned back instantly, a small smirk playing on his lips. 

The moment that Potter flew away from the goal hoops and in pursuit of the quaffle he was being attacked repeatedly by the bludgers. He swerved through them quickly and I glanced around at the pitch, looking at the positioning of the other players.

“Where are the Gryffindor beaters?” I muttered, not seeing the beaters anywhere in sight.

The Gryffindor beaters were trying to intercept the bludgers and protect their highest-scoring chaser from the onslaught of hits. But it was no use. Potter was continually pelted with bludgers as he fought to dodge every one. 

A moment of blind panic crossed his features as a bludger flew straight at Potter but it was approaching him too quickly for him to be able to avoid it. Potter was unable to duck in time and the bludger caught him in the shoulder. The force behind it was enough to knock him straight off from the broom making him freefall to the ground.

I had always wondered just how dangerous quidditch could actually be and now it appeared that I had my answer.

I watched Potter’s rapid descent to the ground, wondering why no one was doing anything to stop it. People were screaming and his teammates appeared to be frozen in fear as they watched their captain fall. All of a sudden the Gryffindor seeker sprang into action, diving down to catch Potter before he hit the ground. He was too late.

Turning away from the pitch I couldn’t bring myself to watch as his body made contact with the ground. Hearing some shout, I looked across the other side of the pitch to see the Gryffindor stand erupt into a scuffle. There was some pushing and shoving until Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew were able to push their way through the crowd.

They ran straight onto the pitch and headed for the quidditch players crowding around Potter. 

“What’s going on?” I asked watching as they pushed people aside, “Is he going to be alright?”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Greta said from beside me. Her words were casual, meant to be a passing remark to emphasise just how normal this situation was. But even I could hear the concern in them. “Quidditch players get hurt all of the time.”

Her words made sense. Quidditch players were bound to get hurt all of the time because of the speed that their brooms were going at, the bludgers flying around and the added peril of being so high in the air. But something was wrong.

From what I could remember Potter was a quidditch player that seemed to be injured after a game more often than not. He was one of the most frequently injured players. However, every time that he was hurt, he would stand right back up and claim, adamantly, that he could continue to play in the game. If anyone tried to stop him from playing they were met with swift arguments from both James and his teammates.

But as I looked back over the side of the stand I chewed on my bottom lip. The school healer had appeared and was moving him onto a levitating stretcher. His pale unmoving from was eased carefully off from the ground and placed onto the stretcher.

* * *

It was a well-known fact that if you looked over at the Ravenclaw table during any mealtime there would be some people that were finishing off the essays. People assumed that it was because there was so much that we wanted to put into our essays or that we were having fun writing our essays. But that was rarely the case. 

The more likely truth was that we had managed to lose ourselves in a book and had completely forgotten about the essay. So we now had to rush to finish the essay in time. Today, the member of the house that needed to finish the essay was me.

I had arrived early to lunch and secured as big a space as possible for myself so that I could write the essay. It was essential that I completed the essay in time because it had been set by Flitwick. Had it been set by another teacher than I would have been tempted to ask them for an extension which I was certain they would be willing to give me. But with Flitwick as a teacher, that wasn’t even a possibility that I could think about. He would simply rant at me about the importance of punctuality. 

Greta nudged me from her seat beside me and I ignored her in favour of finishing the sentence that I was writing. I could talk to her once I reached the end of the sentence. That obviously wasn’t good enough for her.

She nudged me even harder and I glanced up at her sharply as she had caused my quill to scratch across the parchment. Pulling out my wand from my pocket, I erased the ink away with a swift wave of my hand. She nudged me again.

“What?” I demanded, looking over at her when it became obvious that she had no intention of letting me reach the end of my sentence. 

She motioned towards something with her head but the motion was so fast that it looked as though she had a nervous tick. Looking at what she had motioned to I felt my eyes brows shoot up as I regarded the two boys standing patiently on the other side of the table. What were Lupin and Black doing at the Ravenclaw table? Even better yet, why were they waiting to talk to me?

Black tapped the two Ravenclaw boys sitting in front of where he was standing and the two Ravenclaws looked back at the Gryffindor’s and rolled their eyes before moving further down the table. Both Gryffindor’s settled down at the Ravenclaw table next to Greta and me. 

“Do you plan on visiting James at the hospital wing?” Lupin enquired when they were settled. I rolled up my parchment, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to finish it during lunch with the two of them determined to talk to me.

“Um,” I said uncertainly, looking between the Lupin and Black. Truthfully, the thought of visiting Potter hadn’t even crossed my mind. Why should it have? “Potter and I aren’t really friends. There’s really no reason for me to visit him.”

“Well you should visit him,” Black said impatiently, “Maybe you should even visit him right now.”

“Why?” I asked, barely getting the word out when Black and Lupin stood to stand behind me.

I was hoisted out of my seat by the two of them and escorted out of the Great Hall. They dragged me alongside them as they ran to the hospital wind. I groaned as they continued to pull me with him, finding it extremely difficult to match up to their long strides.

Why was it so difficult for them to just walk to the hospital wing like any other sane person? The answer was beyond me as they continued to run. They eventually slowed down to a walking pace as we approached the hospital wing and they pushed the doors open. Crossing the threshold, Black released my arm and began to walk ahead of Lupin and me.

Lupin let go of me as well and muttered under his breath to me, “Just do me a favour and play along.”

I furrowed my eyebrows, looking up at him in confusion as Potter’s bed came into view.

“What do you mean?” I asked but he gave me no response.

“Hey Prongsie,” Black said coming to a stop beside Potter’s bed. 

Lupin and I naturally did the same. I was standing partially behind the two Gryffindors wondering why in Merlin’s name I was here as Black came to my side and pushed me forward slightly. I stumbled over my feet, shooting Black a look as I straightened up and looked at Potter.

“Look who’s here,” Lupin said gesturing to me.

Once Potter had caught sight of me, he sat up and leaned against the pillows. All of his attention was focused onto my figure and I fisted my robes at my side uncertainly. Slowly a smile spread across his lips and I forced myself to give a small one back when he met my eyes.

“Hello, love.”

_Love?_

“Hi Potter,” I said quietly in return, shooting a glare at Black when he pushed me towards the chair beside the bed with unnecessary force. 

Sitting down on the chair, I straightened out my skirt, looking between the three Gryffindors. Each of them was being weird. I watched Potter cautiously from the corner of my eye. He was acting especially strange, well a lot stranger than normal.

“Potter?” He asked and I furrowed my eyebrows when he reacted so strangely to my use of his surname.

Reaching over to take one of my hands from where they were resting on my knees, he took one of my hands in his. His thumb was rubbing against my knuckles. I went to pull my hand away from him but Black cleared his throat frantically. I looked over to Black who shook his head at me, giving me a firm look. I left my hand in Potter’s grasp. 

I looked back at Potter who continued to speak, “What did I do to annoy you now?”

What was happening? I looked between the three of them trying to get my mind around the odd situation that I had been pulled into. Each of them was acting so unlike themselves. Even Lupin. He was standing beside the chair that I was sitting on, looking down at me as if he was ready to intercede if I did something wrong. 

“You got hurt James, obviously,” Lupin supplied for me. He shot me a pleading look, silently asking me to play along with whatever the hell was happening in this room. 

Black distracted Potter with a conversation that I was forced to sit through, all the while my mind was trying to understand what was going on. But I was drawing a complete blank. When the potions that Potter needed to drink were brought over he released my hand to take a hold of the potions. 

Taking that opportunity, I stood up and prepared to leave. I couldn’t take it anymore. If neither of the boys told me what was going on then I felt as if I would go insane. It was just easier for me to leave the situation altogether. 

“Wait,” Potter said halting me once he had finished taking all of his potions. The bottles were quickly removed and I looked back at him. “Where are you going?”

“I’ve got some things I need to do,” I muttered but upon seeing the disappointed look on his face I couldn’t help but add, “I’ll come back and see you again later.”

“Promise?” He asked taking my hand once again. But this time he used it to pull me down to sit on the bed beside him.

“Sure, I promise.” Why the hell had I just promised him that?

“Alright,” he said although he didn’t sound happy about it. He sat back against the pillows and pouted at me. “Before you go, where’s my kiss?”

“Where’s your what?” I muttered under my breath. 

Staring at him I watched as he looked back at me. Turning to the other boys for some assistance I found them both looking at me as if it was perfectly fine for Potter to be asking me for a kiss. Maybe Potter wasn’t the only one to have hit his head?

Sighing I pressed a small kiss to his cheek. I pulled back, blushing violently. 

“I’m going to have to fix your shyness,” Potter muttered, stroking my cheek. He pulled his hand away and looked at the two other boys. “Look after my girl for me.”

_His girl?_

The three of us walked away from Potter and the moment that we were out of the hospital wing and therefore out of Potter’s hearing range I turned to look at them both. They looked back at me, waiting for my outburst.

“Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on or not?” I asked my hands on my hips.

The two of them looked between each other. They couldn’t still be considering not telling me?

“Well you see,” Lupin began slowly, considering his words as he spoke, “When James got hit by the bludger and fell, he developed a form of amnesia-”

“He thinks that you’re his girlfriend.” Black cut in. 

My mouth dropped open in shock. “Excuse me?”

“Be quiet,” Black hissed, making me realise just how loudly I had been talking. “He might hear you.”

“I don’t care if he hears me!”

“Just listen-”

“Let me get my head around this,” I muttered. “You’re telling me that because of his fall Potter remembers some stuff that isn’t real? He doesn’t remember some stuff that actually happened but yet he remembers that I’m his girlfriend? Even though I’m not?”

I groaned and turned to walk away, not giving either boy a chance to stop me. This was all far too weird.

* * *

Lupin and Black were following me- I was sure of it. After I had left the two of them standing outside of the hospital wing they had been appearing everywhere around me. I made sure to keep away from them, I didn’t want to be pulled back into another encounter with Potter again.

Greta had been obviously been curious about what had happened between me and the two marauders but when she had tried to get some details out of me I had made something up. There was no way I was telling her about any of the amnesia rubbish.

I had been walking to the common room when Black and Lupin had intercepted me. Black stood in my way, blocking me from advancing. When I went to walk around him he moved so that he was blocking me once again.

“Are you really going to be this selfish?” Black asked as I met his gaze.

“What are you going on about now Black?”

“James.” He gave me a look that told me that he was questioning my intelligence. “Are you going to do this to James?”

“What exactly am I doing to Potter?”

"What Sirius _means,_" Lupin interjected, shooting Black a rather pointed look. "Is that we were hoping that you could help us get James' memory back."

I sighed. "I-."

"You're the only person that could help."

"I-."

“Please.”

“Aright, fine!” I looked at them both and sighed. “What about Evans then?”

“He’s forgotten about her,” Black said quickly, “So you don’t need to feel guilty about anything.”

“He’s forgotten about her,” I repeated. “How can he forget the girl that he loves?”

“I wouldn’t say he was in love with her.” Black muttered then when he saw my look he just sighed and said, “Come on, we promised him that you’d be there when he was allowed to leave the hospital wing.”

I gave them a look but made no further comment as they pulled me in the direction of the hospital wing. They chatted absentmindedly between themselves as if I wasn’t there which I was thankful for. If they had talked to me then there was a higher chance of me backing out of all of this.

When we walked into the hospital wing, we headed straight for Potter’s bed. He grinned when he caught sight of the three of us approaching his bed. His smile was infectious, I had to admit that.

“We told you that we’d get her, didn’t we?” Black said pushing me closer to Potter’s bed.

“Hi Potter,” I said quietly.

“Potter again?” He said in exasperation as he sat up properly in the bed. He took my hand instantly. “Look, love. I’m really sorry that I got hurt and made you worry. I didn’t know that I had such a caring girlfriend.”

I swallowed tightly. Girlfriend. Right, I was supposed to be his girlfriend.

"Yeah you do," I muttered quietly, my eyes shifting to Lupin as he nodded reassuringly at me. So my answer had been the right one then. "Now hurry up, you need to change and get ready for school. Lupin said that he brought you your uniform.”

"My little bookworm." He said affectionately as I stood up and turned to leave until he called my name. "You don't have to leave, love; you've seen it all before."

"No. No, I haven't," I said trying to fight down a blush at his words.

"I was sure that Sirius said we'd-" He trailed off when he noticed the glare that I was aiming at the side of Black's smirking head.

"No, we haven't done _that_."

We waited outside of the hospital ward for him to change and Black turned to face me. "Thanks. For helping him."

"It's alright," I said quietly as Potter walked out of the room. Smiling, he walked over to me and looped an arm over my shoulder, grinning down at me. 

“Where are we going love?” He asked as the four of us made our way away from the hospital wing. 

“I have to go,” I said pulling away from him, letting his hand fall back to his side. “I promised that I’d meet Greta in the library.”

“But-”

“It’s alright James.” I forced his first name out of my mouth.

“Let me walk you to the library then,” he said catching up to me and taking my hand in his again. 

He glanced over his shoulder at the other two boys and told them to leave without him. I looked back at the two of them and they sent me reassuring looks, silently telling me that I could handle it. They left rather reluctantly. 

“Can you remember your way around the school then?” I asked as we made our way around the school?

He nodded his head, looking down at me, “Yeah – perfectly. It’s just some things that I can’t quite remember very well.”

“What can you remember then?” I looked up at him as he held a door open for me to let me pass through it first. “I remember Hogwarts, my friends and us."

"What about earlier years and-"

"Some stuff's still a bit blurry. But I'm getting there." He grinned down at me.

"That's good," I said, squeezing his hand almost instinctively. "What do you remember about us?"

"Not a lot," he said guiltily as if he was truly sorry for not being able to remember something that was fake. "Just that we've been going out for a few months and that nothing's felt more right."

I smiled at him, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach. How would he feel when he found out that it was all wrong? That the relationship that seemed perfect to him had only been made up in his mind? "That's fine," I said, looking up at him with a reassuring smile. "I'll help you remember everything."

"Thank you," he said stopping before the entrance to the library. 

When he leaned down to bring his head towards me I panicked and placed a hand on his chest to halt his progress.

"Maybe it would be good if we went slowly. For your sake." And for mine, I added silently.

"That sounds good," he said trying to mask the hurt. The hurt look did not suit James Potter.

I looked at him cautiously and reached forward to take a hold of the tie slung around his neck and pulled him down with it. His eyes were watching me cautiously from behind his glasses. Moving towards him I pressed a kiss to his cheek.

* * *

James had developed a habit of sitting with me in the library. Now I would have had no problem with it if he was actually working as well. Except he wasn’t. James went out of his way to sit beside me in case I got too lonely or missed him. So he occupied himself by incessantly asking me questions which would help him to sort out whether he was actually remembering details of his life or if he was just simply making them up. 

“Sirius moved in with me and my parents a few years ago, didn’t he?”

“Yes he did,” I said looking up from the parchment to look at him with a grin. “You’re making a lot of progress James.”

“That’s a good thing isn’t it?” he inquired as I looked back to my essay. 

I frowned down at the sentence that I was writing, wondering how to answer the given question. “Of course it’s a good thing, James.”

“Good enough for me to kiss you?”

“Yes,” I said absentmindedly. 

My eyes widened when I had processed what I had just said. Straightening up I looked at James who was smiling at me mischievously. From the moment that I had set the kissing ban in place, James had gone out of his way to convince me that he was ready for us to be kissing. 

It came as no surprise when he wasted no time in pulling me towards him. He framed my face with one of his hands and ducked his head down to press his lips against mine. I was the first to pull away after a few seconds knowing that I really shouldn’t have liked that kiss as much as I did. 

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” James admitted when he pulled back and settled into his chair. “Well, since I left the hospital wing at least.”

I bit my lip, looking away from him, “Yeah, I could tell.”

At the sound of his chair scraping against the floor, I turned to see him standing up from the chair. Leaning towards me he pressed a kiss to my forehead. 

“I’ve got to go to practice.”

“Alright then.” I smiled up at him. “I guess I’ll see you later then.”

“Or you could come with me.”

Seeing the look that he was giving me I began to pack my stuff up, muttering as I did so. “You say that as if I have a choice.”

He chuckled, reaching up to push his glasses further up his nose. “You know me far too well.”

When I was finished packing up, I too rose from my chair. Putting everything into my bag I saw James hold out his hand for me. I took it almost instantly and let him escort me out of the library. 

We were walking through the corridor and as usual, when I was with James, I was hyper-aware of all of the eyes on us. Although James seemed oblivious to them. He talked animatedly, looking down at me every so often as if to make sure that he wasn’t boring me. 

“So,” he said swinging our interlinked hands between us as we made our way out to the quidditch pitch. We were standing by the now-empty stands. “Will you let me take you out?”

“That depends,” I said shivering slightly from the cold wind. I looked around as the rest of the Gryffindor team arrived to get changed, glancing curiously at their captain and me. “Where do you want to take me?”

“Flying.” A chuckled slipped past his lips at the expression on my face. “Come on, it’ll be just like when I taught you in first year.”

“You remember that?”

"Well, I do now. So can I?" He asked excitedly and I couldn't help but smile at the overexcited grin on his face.

"Yeah, you can."

He remembered. It would only be a matter of time before he regained his memory completely and I'd be free. It was what I wanted for a while, but why did it hurt now?

I was pulled from my thoughts when I felt a wand touch the centre of my forehead. “What?”

“A warming charm.” James smiled sheepishly as he put his wand back in his pocket. “I don’t want my girlfriend freezing out here.”

* * *

One of the odd things about being James’ girlfriend, or rather his fake girlfriend was that I had practically open access to the Gryffindor common room. That was why I was sitting on the sofa of said common room with James’ head in my lap as he told me the random things that he was remembering.

He was making a lot of progress. His memory was returning to him rapidly and I should have been happy about it. But for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to be happy.

“What else can you remember James?” I asked running my hands through hair.

He closed his eyes and I told myself that it wasn’t in contentment. “We were partners in third year for Defence, right?” He grinned as he lifted his head from my lap and sat up.

He leaned in closer to me. It was like a game to him. Every time that he was able to remember something he got a kiss.

“Listen, James,” I said quietly, halting his progress towards me. “I think that we both sort of need some space.”

“Why?” He demanded, sounding shell shocked. “Why are you randomly asking me for space now? Is it because I can’t remember? If it is then just wait a little longer, all of my memories are coming back.”

“Of course it’s not because you can’t remember.” It’s because you’re beginning to remember. “James, I need space because we both need to focus on our NEWTs.”

"Wait so you're telling me that we need to break up for the _NEWTs_? You’re not being serious, are you?”

“I’m really sorry James.”

* * *

“I need to return a book,” I said to Greta as we were on our way to our common room. “I’ll just be a minute – I’ll meet you in the dorm?”

She nodded and headed in the direction of the common room, leaving me alone.

I walked down the hallway and was unable to keep my thoughts from returning to James. We had both been avoiding each other since our break up. Although was it really a breakup? Regardless of that, we kept to ourselves. 

I had been told by Remus that all of James’ memories had returned soon after our break up and he had thanked me for helping his friend. I was surprised that although he had all of his memories, James had been nowhere even remotely close to Evans. It was as if he was isolating himself from everyone apart from Remus, Sirius and Pettigrew.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed the hand had was approaching me. I only noticed it when I was pulled into an abandoned classroom, a scream reflexively leaving my throat. Glaring up at the boy that still held my arm, I pushed him away from me.

“What the hell is your problem Potter?” I demanded.

“So now we’re back to Potter are we?” He sneered down at me, tucking his hands into his pockets. “I mean it’s hardly surprising given the way we broke up, is it?”

“James-”

“No,” he cut me off, his voice full of sarcastic derision. “I mean – you needed to concentrate on your NEWTs, didn’t you?”

“I-”

He gave me no opportunity to explain myself.

"Why? Why did you pretend to go out with me?" He gripped my shoulders before letting go of me. He walked away from me, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "It's been driving me crazy! I can't think of a _single _reason for a girl that didn't even know me all that well to agree to fake date me. There’s no real reason for you to do what you did. "

"Remus and Sirius asked me to help bring your memories back," I said quietly, watching his pacing back. He stopped still at my words. "I don't understand why you're acting like this."

"Because it wasn't pretend for me!" He exploded turning on his heels to face me again. He regained his composure and spoke in a much quieter voice. "It wasn't pretend."

"Of course it was," I insisted. “We weren’t really dating, you have to know that.”

"No," he said walking towards me. "It was real. It was my feelings." He sighed. "It was real."

"No," I said trying to deny it. He saw through my denial and gave me a firm look.

“What’s the real reason you broke up with me?” He stared down at me. “Don’t even think about lying to me because I will gladly keep you here until you tell me the truth.”

One look at the determined set of his mouth told me that he was being truthful. Letting out a sigh, I looked down at my shoes.

"It hurts alright?" I muttered. "It hurts to think that once you were done with me, once you'd got your memory back I'd get pushed aside for Evans."

He froze. "You thought I'd push you aside?" His eyes were screwed shut as he let out a deep breath. "I just told you that our relationship was real to me and you tell me that you thought I'd push you away. Haven't you noticed that I've lost interest in Lily?"

"I-"

"Why are you so stubborn?" He muttered taking me by my shoulders he shook me gently. "It's you and you alone. Alright?"

I blinked owlishly up at him. "What?"

"Honestly," he muttered under his breath. Slowly, he trailed his hands up my arms and shoulders until they cupped my face.

"What are you doing?" I asked quietly.

"This." He leaned down to kiss my cheek. "We take it slow alright?"

"You say that as if I have a choice."

A smile tugged at his lips. "You know me too well." He took my hand in his and pulled me out of the classroom.

"What are we doing?" I asked as he led me through the corridor. It was almost curfew but something told me that he didn’t care about that little fact.

"We," he muttered, tugging me into his side as he grinned at me. "Are going flying. Just like in first year."


	2. Epilogue: 4 Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “How can you be so calm about this James?” 
> 
> “Because I have to be, I have a family to protect.” His eyes drifted over to Neville who had started to quieten down. “Things are going to change now and we need to be prepared for whatever’s going to come our way.”

_4 YEARS LATER _

The funeral was a sombre affair. The young couple, killed at the tender age of 21 were buried side by side, their 1 year old held in the arms of his grandmother. The boy was crying but he didn’t know why. He was sad but he didn’t know why. The boy cried louder, setting off the only other baby at the event. 

Looking down at the baby in my arms I cooed quietly to him, hugging him closer to me. Rocking him back and forth, I buried my face in his hair to hide my tears. An arm wrapped around my shoulder as James stepped closer to me, covering our little family with the umbrella. 

“It could have just as easily been us, James,” I said quietly, sniffling back my tears. “Merlin I didn’t think it would be Alice and Frank.”

“There was a chance that it would have been us.” He said gently, “If Bellatrix wasn’t caught before she breached our wards then who knows what would have happened.”

I sucked in a shuddering breath, rocking Harry back and forth but he wouldn’t be soothed. How could he be when the woman he wanted to seek comfort from was upset herself? I needed to be strong for my son.

“Pass him here,” A voice said from the other side of James. 

Sirius approached the pair of us after having paid his respect to our newly fallen friends. Holding out one arm for his godson, he took Harry into his arms and held an umbrella of his own in his other hand. Cradling my son against his chest, he managed to calm Harry quickly.

James pulled me into his side and I turned, burrowing my head in his chest. Wrapping an arm around me, he patted my back gently to calm me. Taking a deep breath, I pulled away from him and looked up into his face. 

“How can you be so calm about this James?” 

“Because I have to be, I have a family to protect.” His eyes drifted over to Neville who had started to quieten down. “Things are going to change now and we need to be prepared for whatever’s going to come our way.”

I nodded, and looked back to Neville and his grandmother. “Let’s go and say goodbye to Alice and Frank for the last time.”

Making our way through the crowd of people we approached the two headstones. Letting out a deep breath I stepped out from beneath the umbrella. Crouching down beside the graves, I pulled my wand from my pocket and conjured up two bunches of roses and placed one in front of each gravestone. Rising to my feet I turned back to James only to find him shedding some unwanted tears.

“James.” I muttered quietly, wrapping my arms around him in a hug. 

He dropped the umbrella he was holding, wrapping his arms around me and burrowing his head into my neck. His shoulders shook slightly as he finally let himself cry. Rubbing his back a little, I let him hide his face in my neck as if to hide his tears. We stood, getting drenched by the rain until we were covered once again by an umbrella. Looking into the eyes of the tallest marauder, I smiled gratefully at Remus as he shielded us from the rain.

Remus gave me a gentle smile and reached out to set a hand on James’ shoulder, the action making my husband wipe at his face and straighten up. The two old friends shared a look before heading back to Sirius with me under James’ arm. Harry, spotting his father, made grabbing motions and James smiled for the first time today, reaching out to pick up our son. 

I tried to smile at my boys, all four of them, but my eyes strayed to the other baby in the room. Excusing myself, I made my way through the crowd, towards Neville and his grandmother. The older woman recognised me immediately and thanked me for coming.

“Can I hold him?” I asked, gesturing towards the boy. His grandmother handed him over to me and I rocked the young boy gently in my arms. Neville stared up at me with big eyes and I smiled softly at him, my eyes drifting to the lightning scar on his forehead. 

“Are you the girl who made the Unbreakable Vow with my daughter-in-law?” The older woman asked and I nodded my head.

“Alice and I knew that Voldemort would come after one of our sons, and that one of us would have to fall so we made the vow that our sons would always have a set of parents to treat like their own.” Leaning down to press a kiss to Neville’s head, I met the eyes of the older woman. “And I will make good on that promise – I want him and Harry to grow up like brothers so whenever you want to drop him off at our home, feel free to do so. He’ll always have shelter in our home.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Turning my attention back to the child in my arms, I met the inquisitive eyes that were staring up at me. “Neville Longbottom, your parents were two of the bravest people I have ever met and they loved you so much sweetheart. And you will still be loved and believed in. As long as I breathe, you will have my protection.”

Neville, as if he understood my words, smiled brightly as I handed him back to his grandmother. I made my way back to James and took Harry from him.

“Is everything alright?” He asked, looking down at me. 

“No.” I pressed a kiss to Harry’s forehead. “But it will be.”

“Are you sure?” He asked with evident concern and I nodded.

“Now,” I looked around at three of the original marauders, “Let’s go home.”


End file.
